October 11, 2013

Too much magic? Maybe.

Last night I was visiting with my siblings at my parents’ house since my brother was in town for a few days, and my sister made the observation that lately it seems like I haven’t been doing anything but working or going on vacation. To be perfectly honest, I think she has a point on that one. It does seem like I’m either spending way too much time at work or I’m not spending much time at work at all. I can’t remember the last time I actually worked a regular 40-hour week, since I seem to be either working well in excess of that (including weekends on occasion) or being out for a day or two. In the end it all seems to even out, and even with plans to take two whole weeks off in December. I still suspect I will be pretty close to the standard 2,080 hours that comprise a year of 40-hour work weeks.

I’m fortunate to work at a place that allows the flexibility to travel as much as I do, even if I do occasionally end up working long hour. One of the people I work with on my current project actually spent a month in Europe visiting family recently, then got back here and promptly got sent to England for work for two weeks, came back, then got sent over again. Another one got sent to Japan for several weeks as well. So far I haven’t had to do any business travel in my job, but I suspect it’s a matter of time at this point.

As often seems to be the case, I’m writing this on an airplane, taking my typical Friday morning flight down to LA for yet another weekend at Disneyland. Yeah, I know I seem to be spending an awful lot of time there lately, but given how much I’ve spent on my annual passes, I figure I should try to get as much use out of the things as I possibly can. I don’t I would be able to visit nearly as often as I do if I didn’t have friends whose parents generously allow us to stay at their condo in Orange County when we go down there, thus saving us the cost of hotels. As long as we have that available, we can do a trip for a few days for basically the cost of plane tickets, a rental car, food and incidentals. Granted, all that can still add up pretty quickly (there’s still no such thing as a cheap Disney trip unless you’re a local) and the whole thing is entirely dependent on having an Annual Pass ($650 for the premium one when me and my friend bought them, $670 now) but add long as you’re spreading out the costs of that over several trips, even that becomes cheaper in the long run.

But perhaps the biggest effect of having the annual pass is that it completely changes the way you do Disneyland. The last trip me and my friend took a couple of months ago was nothing like some of the other trips I’ve been on. Neither of us was inclined to bother rushing to do anything. We didn’t really care if we got to do every ride and see everything. We didn’t bother rushing to your drop or staying excessively late to cram in the last couple of rides. There are some obsessive planner types who would consider a trip like that up be a total waste, but to be honest, that was one of the best trips to Disneyland that I’ve been on. Given the fact that this trip will be with a much larger group, I’m not sure how this one will turn out, but it should still be interesting.